The major parties should crack down on alcohol consumption through taxing it by volume, adding graphic health warnings and restricting trading hours, Australia’s largest non-profit provider of health and aged care services has said.
St Vincent’s Health Australia, which runs St Vincent’s public hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne, has released an election wishlist designed to decrease alcohol-related illness and injury by 20% by 2025.
It calls for an end to all alcohol advertising on free-to-air TV sporting broadcasts, as well as sponsorship of music events and sporting merchandise.
St Vincent’s called for an increase in the price of alcohol to reduce consumption and related harm, with products taxed on the basis of value of alcohol content.
St Vincent’s wants to develop national guidelines on alcohol outlet density and opening hours, including measures such as banning pubs and clubs serving alcohol after 3am and forcing bottle shops to close at 10pm.
It also called for cigarette-style pictorial health warnings on all products and a study of plain packaging for alcohol.
St Vincent’s chief executive, Toby Hall, told Guardian Australia one in 10 of those who came to its Sydney hospital was there due to alcohol.
“When you look across wider society, 15 people are dying every day due to alcohol-related issues and 430 a day are hospitalised. It’s having a massive impact on society and on the individual,” he said.
According to Hall, fewer Australians consume alcohol on a regular basis than in the past, but 4 million people consume 75% of the total alcohol consumed.
Hall defended restricting trading hours, pointing to a 9% reduction in assaults in New South Wales after liquor stores were required to close at 10pm in 2014. The restrictions accompanied the state’s controversial 1.30am lockout for licensed venues, which was credited with lowering assaults but also accused of dampening Sydney’s nightlife.
Hall said a 10pm closing time for bottle shops was reasonable. “That policy should be nationalised to protect people including women at risk of domestic violence, and the community, to prevent the 4 million people who overindulge in alcohol from accessing at all times.”
He said a study had found for every 10,000 additional litres of pure alcohol sold at a packaged liquor outlet, the risk of violence experienced in a residential setting increased 26%.
Hall said volumetric taxation would have the biggest impact in the short term, to prevent consumers buying alcohol for as little as $2 for a bottle of wine at bottle shops.
The chief executive of the Australian Hotels Association, Stephen Ferguson, said any alcohol policies should “target individuals or groups that misuse (or risk misusing) alcohol beverages and not the whole population”.
“Liquor licensing laws are about controlling behaviour, and regulators already have all the power they need to limit trading hours if they’re a source of problems. The AHA supports local solutions for local problems so you don’t punish responsible venues and responsible drinkers,” he said.
Ferguson said “there is very little evidence that alcohol taxation increases have any effect on those that misuse alcohol”.
“Rather, such increases generally have the effect of reducing consumption by the vast majority of people who enjoy alcohol beverages on a moderate and responsible basis.”
Hall said in the long term “banning alcohol ads at sporting events is absolutely vital to stop young people getting involved in alcohol to begin with”.
“The Wallabies, Cricket Australia, State of Origin, they are all brands well known by children and directly linked to alcohol. That association that alcohol and sport are synonymous … cutting that link is vital.”
“If governments pursue our recommendations, I’m confident we’ll not only see significant change, but we will literally save hundreds of lives,” Hall said.
Ferguson said alcohol advertising met community expectations and represented only 1.3% of all ads.
A Coalition spokesman said it had no plans to introduce volumetric taxation and did not support a ban on alcohol sponsorship of music and sports events.
When asked about national guidelines on trading hours, he said: “These are matters for state governments, but we support any state government that takes steps to reduce the level of alcohol-fuelled violence.”
The Greens policy on alcohol includes a tax based on alcohol content and a ban on ads and promotions in sport.
Labor’s alcohol spokesman, Stephen Jones, told Guardian Australia: “We can’t stick our head in the sand when it comes to alcohol. Police report that the majority of domestic violence incidents involve alcohol and it is still the biggest cause of personal injuries, road accidents and an underlying cause for many chronic diseases.”
Jones said Labor was committed to producing a new national alcohol strategy. “We believe we need to do more to tackle the harms associated with alcohol in conjunction with the states and territories and we will look closely at the report from St Vincent’s Health Australia.”